A PERSIAN VIEW OF THE ANGLO-RUSSIAN AGREEMENT.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Althougb no sensible person can suppose that the clauses referring to Persia in the recently concluded Anglo- Russian Agreement are regarded by the Persians with equanimity or approval, I think that the following extracts from a letter on this subject which I recently received from a very intelligent and upright Persian may help some of your readers to realise something of the anxiety and distress with which it is regarded in Persia :— " The consternation," he writes, "into which the Anglo-Russian Agreement has plunged us is indescribable am very anxious to ascertain your opinion on this matter, and especially as to what is meant by this division into two 'spheres of influence.' . . . . . Although the prologue of the Treaty declares that each State undertakes to respect the integrity and independence of Persia,' yet precisely the same false and specious words have been used in the Treaties referring to Tunis, Morocco, and Egypt. Consider how England has disappointed the hopes cherished by the Persians when sixteen thousand of them took refuge in the British Legation, and through it obtained from their Government the grant of a Constitution. Now, with one stroke of the pen, it has abandoned the Northern half of Persia to the false, shameless, despotic, pitiless, and cruel Government
of Russia Why has England, which poses as the protector of weak nations, such as the Congo, Macedonia, the Armenians, &c., with her own hands consigned to destruction
this ancient nation, which looked to her for help ? Ask any Persian labourer whether, if he must needs fall under the dominion of foreigners (which God forbid !), he would prefer the English or the Russians, and he will unhesitatingly reply : The English !' All classes of the people, high and low, heartily detest Russia and the Russians with the natural antipathy of cat and dog. How unfortunate it is for them that all the richest, most fertile, and most civilised provinces, such as Azarbayjan, Gilan, Mazandaran, Persian Irak, and Khurasan—nay, even Isfahan and Kashan—should fall under Russian influence, especially Isfahan, of which the inhabitants are all English in tastes and sympathies, and in which English commerce is ten- fold that of Russia! All that England cares about, however, is India, to protect the frontiers of which she would gladly sacrifice all the nations and peoples on earth. For many years her eyes have been fixed on Sista'', while the activity she has displayed in Beluchistan and Kirman is well known. So now she has attained her object by constructing a fresh rampart (namely, Afghanistan, Beluchistan, Kirman, and part of Fars) between India and other lands. Yet, after all, what reliance can she place on Russia's promises ? What promise has she ever made which she did not ultimately break ?"
To this letter I could only reply that my correspondent, in common with many educated Muslims, had fallen into the error of supposing that considerations of abstract justice and morality played an appreciable part in the international politics of modern Europe ; that Western civilisation was seriously influenced by Christian ethics ; and that latter-day Liberalism was inspired by love of liberty and hatred of tyranny and injustice. In this country, I added, modern political thought, abandoning the Quixotic and chivalrous ideas of the mid-Victorian period, tended more and more to conform to the doctrine of the " survival of the fittest," " fittest" being understood to mean strongest and most cunning. Peace was to be secured by the agreement of the great predatory nations as to the dismemberment of their weaker neighbours, and the claims of Western civilisation were to be vindicated by the destruction of all rival systems, no matter how inoffensive, or how well fitted to the needs of the nations by whom they had been evolved. Japan alone, of all modern non-European States, had learned the lesson that the soul of the East must seek salvation in the armour of the West. These observations called forth a second letter from my Persian correspondent, from which I can only quote a few
passages :— " Unhappily all that you wrote concerning the condition of the Mohammedan States is true ; but what can we do ? . ..... Wherever the foot of Russia falls, science, art, and civilisation take flight for ever, and if there be a spark of patriotic feeling, it forthwith perishes, and is quenched by fear of the pitiless and bloodthirsty Cossacks. Woe unto us if we fall into the hands of
this cruel people This action of England has alienated from her the good opinion and sympathy of all Persians, especially in view of the fact that, since the disgraceful defeat sustained by Russia in the Far East, and those internal dis- orders which will end no one knows where, England had no need of making these self-denying concessions in the North
of Persia in order to gratify Russia What the political object of England can be in making, for the sake of Russia, this great act of renunciation in Northern Persia only Sir Edward Grey knows : it passes our comprehension. Its immediate effect in Persia is, however, the complete destruction of the friendship which the Persians have entertained for the English. Little the English Government cares ! Its solo preoccupation is to safe- guard India. Justice, constancy, faith, and the keeping of promises are but words for the simple-minded. Woe to that people which, heedless of peril, fails to busy itself with military preparations. Others are not to blame : the blame rests on it alone. The law of Dominion is to the strong' is a natural law, operative likewise in the animal and vegetable worlds. Ever the strong plant chokes the weak, and the strong animal kills, rends, and devours the smaller animal, and no thunder and lightning
appear in the heavens Natural laws have no exceptions this is the sum of the matter, and all other words, arguments, and major and minor premisses are vain and superfluous. Peace be upon you and the mercy of God."
Making allowance for a rhetorical style alien to our modes of expression, I think the above extracts correctly represent the feelings of the great majority of the Persians. To some of us also, who bailed the advent to power of the present Government as a harbinger of better things, this ill-starred Agreement has been a bitter disillusion. Even Free-trade, we may be tempted to think, is dearly bought at the price of such unholy compacts.—I am, Sir, &e.,
Previous page
